MARCH/APRIL 1999

VOL.4 NO.2

Kitchen Table Tasting - Anheuser-Busch's Tequiza

I am definitely not part of the target market for Tequiza. I note this for the following reasons: One, I am not normally a consumer of beers that come in clear glass bottles (I worry too much about them being light-struck and skunky); Two, I am not a fan of light Mexican lagers like Corona and Sol; Three, I find the idea of flavouring lager with tequila and lime to be, well, rather rude.

Like I said, I'm not the guy A-B is looking to drink this beer.

Nevertheless, when Anheuser-Busch was good enough to send me a sample of their new flavoured beer, I was determined to give it a fair shot. So I decided to taste it three different ways, beginning with an ordinary tasting; then trying it after first licking the lemon-lime flavoured salt they enclosed with the sample, as per their suggestion; and finally, pouring the beer over ice in a salt-rimmed glass, also as per A-B's instructions.

Taste Number One: Naked Beer

This is not the aroma I expected. Tequiza smells very much like Sprite immediately after it is poured and then settles down into what is perhaps best described as a slightly grassy, slightly spicy Sprite and tequila cocktail aroma. (I'm picking tequila as the booze because it's supposed to be in the beer, but really the aroma is mostly lemon-lime soda and almost anything alcoholic.) The flavour of Tequiza is likewise surprising, but this time because it is actually less like the smell and more like I originally expected it to taste. The front is sweet and a little lime-ish, while the body is an odd mix of light, sweet lager, lime cordial and fresh lime, grassy notes and a very faint boozy edge. The finish is lingering sugar and lime with perhaps a hint of spice.

Taste Number Two: Salt and Beer

I am familiar with the ritual of sprinkling salt in one's beer to de-carbonate it, but this is the first time that anyone has suggested that I lick salt before taking a sip of my beer. I'm not certain how I should do this, so I try it shooter style, with a little salt at the base of the thumb and forefinger of my left hand and the glass in my right.

Beer? What beer? All that I can taste is salt! Maybe I went a little too heavy on the lemon-lime-flavoured sodium, though, so I'll give it another try.

No good. I might as well be drinking water for all I can taste of the beer. The salt actually isn't that bad, though, with a pretty good infusion of natural lemon and lime flavours. I think that I'll keep this stuff for the next time I'm making Mexican food.

Taste Number Three: The Beer "Margerita"

I don't know who came up with the idea of this serving suggestion, but they really should take some time to reach back in their memory and figure out what the hell they were thinking! This is no way to taste a beer, even a Tequiza. The salt hits the palate first and takes out your taste buds, then the ice-cold beer washes over the tongue and leaves little to no impression whatsoever. Unless you love the taste of salt and despise the flavour of beer, this is quite simply a bad idea.

The Verdict:

Sorry A-B, but neither I nor anyone who is remotely fond of the taste of beer is going to go for your salt-themed serving suggestions. And as for the beer on its own, well, you know that I'm not one of those purists who frown on the idea of flavoured beer, but even so, I can't get enthusiastic about this brew. If I want to drink pop, I'll drink pop, and when I want to drink beer, that's what I'll go for, beer. "Beer pop," on the other hand, is never going to be included in my idea of a good drink, be it Tequize or Zima or whatever might come next.

But then again, as I noted at the outset, I'm not part of the target audience for this stuff.

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